Speakers 2025

Most inspiring breakthroughs and honest, radical discussions

Energy transition & Clean mobility
Sustainable food systems
Healthcare for All
Climate resilience and biodiversity
Advanced computing: New Frontiers
Investor Insights
Scaling for global impact
Deep Tech Ecosystem
The Startup Journey
All

Shirley Meng

Professor of Molecular Engineering

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

Find out more

Dr. Y. Shirley Meng is a Professor of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. She serves as the Chief Scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Meng is the director of Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA), an innovation hub funded by US Department of Energy, Office of Science. She has been the principal investigator of the research group Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC), which was established at the University of California San Diego, since 2009. She held the Zable Chair Professor in Energy Technologies at UC San Diego from 2017-2022 and founded the Sustainable Power and Energy Center (SPEC) in 2016. Dr. Meng has received several prestigious awards, including the ACS Research Excellence in Electrochemistry (2024), ECS Battery Division Research Award (2023), the C3E technology and innovation award (2022), the Faraday Medal of Royal Chemistry Society (2020), International Battery Association IBA Research Award (2019), Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Finalist (2018), C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016), and an NSF CAREER Award (2011). Dr. Meng is an elected fellow of the Electrochemical Society (FECS), fellow of the Materials Research Society (FMRS), and fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is the author and co-author of more than 320 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters and eight issued patents. Dr. Meng received her Ph.D. in advanced materials for micro & nano systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005. She received her bachelor’s degree in materials science with first class honor from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore in 2000.

Matthew Blain

Principal

Voyager Ventures

Find out more

Matthew has been incubating and launching early-stage businesses since 2017. He joined Voyager Ventures in San Francisco as the fund’s first hire in 2022 and now leads Voyager’s European team. Before Voyager, Matthew completed an MBA at Berkeley and Columbia, founded a CPG company and previously worked at Deloitte Ventures. He sits on the board of Packfleet, Enapi, SirenOpt and Mitti Labs.

Stylianos Papergeorgiou

Managing Director

lomarlabs

Find out more

I’m a shipping executive with 20 years’ experience in the technical management of cargo ships. I founded lomarlabs to catalyse the deployment of deep-tech solutions that can help solve the maritime industry’s biggest challenges. Our maritime futures programme helps founders of hard tech start-ups who want to validate their product by granting them access to ships and sharing industry expertise.

Kirsty Gogan

CEO

TERRAPRAXIS

Find out more

Kirsty Gogan is managing partner of LucidCatalyst, a highly specialised international consultancy, and Terra Praxis, an innovative non-profit powered by philanthropy. Both organisations are focused on multiplying and accelerating deployment of clean, reliable, competitive clean energy solutions for large energy users including utilities, Hyperscalers, oil and gas, marine, and off shore industries.

Stefano Buono

CEO

newcleo

Find out more

Nuclear physicist and successful entrepreneur, Stefano in 2021 co-founded newcleo, an innovator in the field of nuclear energy. newcleo is working to design, build, and operate Gen-IV Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs) that are cooled by liquid lead and fuelled by reprocessed nuclear waste with more than EUR 535m of private funding and a workforce of over 850 highly qualified employees across EU.

Duncan Turner

General Partner

SOSV / Hax

Find out more

At SOSV, I invest exclusively in start-ups that use physical sciences to solve some of the world's toughest problems driven by climate change, a reconfiguration of global industries and equitable access to healthcare. I use my diverse experience in design, engineering, manufacturing and GTM to help pre-seed start-ups scale. Over the past nine years, I have invested in 200+ start-ups at SOSV.

Jean-Baptiste Choimet

CEO

GTT

Find out more

Jean-Baptiste Choimet is the CEO of GTT Group, the global leader in cryogenic membrane containment systems for the transport and storage of liquefied gases. He joined the Group in 2020 as Managing Director of Elogen, before being appointed Group's CEO in 2024. Previously, Jean-Baptiste oversaw major LNG projects at companies such as Technip, Société Général and EDF.

Stephanie Marrus

Managing Director of Entrepreneurship

UCSF Innovation Ventures

Find out more

Stephanie Marrus is Managing Director, Entrepreneurship, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the leading scientific research and medical graduate school in the US that is ranked #16 among the world’s best universities. She is a Silicon Valley life science/healthcare startup expert who has facilitated the start of numerous companies through delivering training and mentoring programs.

Christian Tang-Jespersen

Partner

Acme Capital

Find out more

Christian brings over 20 years of global leadership and investment expertise. He has a strong focus on biotech, with notable investments in Invert Bio, Reshape Biotech, and Again Bio. Previously, as CEO of Heptagon, he drove exponential growth, leading to a $2.5B acquisition. Christian has advised on $10B+ in transactions, including major M&A deals, IPOs, and private placements.

Robert Brears

Founder

Our Future Water

Find out more

As an internationally recognized author and consultant, Robert has dedicated his career to advancing water security, green growth, and comprehensive environmental stewardship. He is the founder of Our Future Water, addressing urgent water-related challenges, and Global Climate Solutions, which explores cutting-edge ideas and actionable insights across multiple areas such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and resilient urban development. Robert also contributes to global efforts through his role with the United Nations' Green Climate Fund, where he serves on the Roster of Experts (Water). He is the author of Financing Water Security and Green Growth (Oxford University Press).

Martijn van Noordennen

Chief Commercial Officer

Desolenator

Find out more

Martijn van Noordennen is CCO at Desolenator, a scale-up providing sustainable water solutions globally. With 30+ years including Salesforce and Shell, he drives growth for the company's innovative solar thermal desalination technology.

Prateek Mahalwar

CEO & Founder

BIOWEG

Find out more

Dr. Prateek Mahalwar, an entrepreneur and bioeconomy enthusiast, holds a PhD in Genetics from Max Planck and was a strategy consultant at EY-Parthenon before founding BIOWEG. On a mission to transform fossil-based economies, starting with microplastics, BIOWEG replaces fossil polymers using waste streams, biotech, and green chemistry for a sustainable future.

Freeke Heijman-te Paske

Founder & CEO

Heijman Consultancy

Find out more

Freeke Heijman-te Paske‘s passion is to grow the European quantum industry for a more sustainable world. She has co-founded and led the Dutch Quantum Ecosystem approach and raised €615M for QDNL. Her quantum journey started at QuTech at TU Delft. She’s active in the WEF as a two-term co-chair of the GFC for the Quantum Economy and currently works for NATO, TNO, OrangeQS and Qblox as an independent consultant.

Lise Rechsteiner

General Partner

Vsquared Ventures

Find out more

Lise is a General Partner at Vsquared Ventures, an early-stage deep-tech fund investing in novel computing, green energy, robotics, ML, new space, & tech-bio. Vsquared has a strong pan-European deep tech portfolio with over 35 investments to date, including Isar Aerospace, IQM & Zama. Lise has been in VC since 2015 and previously co-founded a Nordic deep tech fund, built companies under Rocket Internet and holds a PhD in technology management from ETH Zurich.

Laurie Menoud

Founding Partner

At One Ventures

Find out more

Laurie Menoud is a founding Partner at At One Ventures, she holds board member positions at 8 portfolio companies and has over a decade of deep tech commercialization, company building, and venture capital experience. She will also be speaking at our VIP Financing the Future event!

Matthew Jones

Managing Partner

Syensqo Ventures

Find out more

Matt Jones, Managing Partner at Syensqo Ventures, supports startups driving sustainability with advanced materials across various sectors. With a Mechanical Engineering degree from UC Davis and an MBA from Duke University, he brings 25 years' experience in Venture Capital accross various sectors including power, energy, and chemicals.

Pae Wu

General Partner

SOSV / Indiebio

Find out more

Pae Wu is a general partner at SOSV and CTO at IndieBio where she invests in deep tech companies solving critical problems in defense, human and planetary health. Previously she funded breakthrough technologies at DARPA, the US Office of Naval Research Global, and Telefónica’s Alpha. She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Duke (PhD) and Princeton (BS).

Rajesh Swaminathan

Partner

Khosla Ventures

Find out more

Rajesh Swaminathan is a Partner at Khosla Ventures, with over two decades of experience assisting and investing in deep tech startups. He manages many of the firm’s investments across renewables generation, storage, hydrogen, industrial decarbonization, plastics, foodtech, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.

Liza Rubinstein Malamud

Co-founder, Chief Strategy & Impact

Carbon Equity

Find out more

Liza is a Co-Founder and Chief Strategy & Climate Impact Officer at Carbon Equity. Carbon Equity is a climate Fund-of-Funds investment platform. Founded three years ago, the platform currently has €300M under management from more than 1,200 investors. Carbon Equity has invested in 25 climate funds including BEV, EIP and Altor. Prior, Liza worked as a decarbonization consultant at McKinsey.

Steven Jacobs

Deep Tech Investor

Find out more

Steven Jacobs is a leading Deep Tech Investor in Europe and the US. He has partnered with over 30 companies such as constellr, Lightium, Aleph Alpha, Isar Aerospace, Varda Space, Menten AI, and Artisan Insights. Steve brings over a decade of experience in product development from Silicon Valley for companies such as Apple, HP, Facebook, and Google as well as having founded and exited his own start-up.

Lukas Leitner

Deep Tech Investor

Lake Star

Find out more

Lukas Leitner is a core member of Lakestar's Deep Tech team, instrumental in building it from the ground up. Driven by a passion for SpaceTech, he joined Lakestar and expanded his focus to areas like Compute, Energy, Biology, Robotics, and Dual-Use technologies. He also co-authored the European Deep Tech Reports. Before Lakestar, Lukas was a Consultant at BCG.

Yoram Wijngaarde

CEO

Dealroom.co

Find out more

Yoram Wijngaarde is the founder of Dealroom.co, which was launched in 2014 to provide intelligence about the world’s most promising startups and ecosystems. Before founding Dealroom, Yoram was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, Nomura Securities and NOAH Advisors in New York and London. Yoram has a cum laude Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Nicolas Autret

Partner

Walden Catalyst Ventures

Find out more

Nicolas Autret is General Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, a $575M global VC firm set up in 2021, with offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and Israel, investing in early stage, deep tech startups. Current and past investments include ANYbotics, Odoo, Prophesee, Innoviz Technologies (NASDAQ: INVZ), Sophia Genetics (NASDAQ:SOPH), GrAI Matter Labs (acquired by Snap Inc.), etc.

Renita Kalhorn

Deep Tech Leadership Coach

The High-EQ Founder

Find out more

Renita Kalhorn is the creator of The High-EQ Founder and an executive coach who’s worked with 1,500+ clients in 40 countries, from Fortune 500 executives and Inc 5000 entrepreneurs to US military Special Forces. She specializes in helping deep tech founders level up their leadership and communication skills so they can execute on their vision.

Past Speakers

John Bell

HighTechXL
CEO

Find out more

John Bell is CEO at HighTechXL. He is passionate about sustainability and building impactful ventures that solve grand societal challenges. With his extensive experience in open innovation, new business creation, partnerships and strategy, he’s certain to fulfill that goal. Previously, he spent five years at Johnson & Johnson, where he led their internal accelerator, and at Philips Research he was responsible for open innovation, partnerships with tech institutes and collaboration with startups.

Amélie Quilichini

Kolibri
CEO

Find out more

Bringing disruptive technologies where least expected has been the common theme of Amelie’s career. Trained as an engineer, Amélie started started her career in 2014 working in a deeptech strategy consulting firm as both a consultant and intrapreneur. She further took a leap of faith in 2020, cofounding Kolibri, as CEO. Kolibri is reimagining cell manufacturing using acoustic waves (in other words, playing music to cells), to unlock the industrial production of advanced therapies.

Nakia Melecio

Georgia Institute of Technology
Director & Senior Research Faculty

Find out more

Nakia Melecio, a Senior Research Faculty at Georgia Tech’s Innovation Enterprise Institute and Principal at Venture Lab, aids researchers in commercializing Biotechnology, Energy, Defense, and Aerospace Technology. With expertise in securing investments from federal labs, universities, and corporations, Nakia also leads the MedTech Center of Excellence. This initiative supports early-stage medical device technologies, offering guidance in product realization and biotechnology. With a background spanning industry, academia, and government, Nakia brings extensive experience to technology transfer and innovation ecosystems globally. Nakia mentors technology startups and contributes to organizations like the U.S. Small Business Administration, embodying a commitment to advancing technology and entrepreneurship.

Mike Harmon

Hardtech CMO
Founder

Find out more

Mike is a US-based expert on commercialization for deep tech startups (pre-seed through Series B.) He was the first marketing hire for 4 venture-backed startups, including two deep tech ventures (wireless power, molecular diagnostics.) His commercialization leadership has helped produce over $50M in revenue and $30M in venture investments. He is also a certified executive coach, helping teams and individuals navigate the challenges of work and life inside a startup.

Johannes Triebs

Earlybird Venture Capital
Partner

Find out more

Johannes is partner at Earlybird-X, the (pre-)seed fund of Earlybird Venture Capital. Earlybird‑X backs deep tech innovation, including AI, novel computing, industrial & climate tech, at the earliest stages – tapping into a network of leading European universities. Johannes is particularly excited about extraordinary teams with breakthrough technology solutions and can support them with his strong academic and industry network. Before joining Earlybird-X he founded 5P Capital, a micro VC around Aachen University, and was active in various mgmt. positions of university spin offs helping them to grow from 0 up to 10 Mio € in sales annually. He studied mechanical engineering in Aachen, Berkeley and Zurich and holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from Aachen University.

Eugenie Rives

X, The Moonshot Factory
Managing Director

Find out more

Eugenie currently leads a stealth moonshot at X exploring new applications for Large Language Models. Before becoming a project lead she headed up a portfolio of early stage projects exploring radical new ways to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using breakthrough technologies (from clean energy, chip design to Plant Biology).During her time at X Eugenie also led a robotics moonshot in logistics. Eugenie is passionate about bringing more diversity to the tech industry and co-founder the “Women@X” group – a community of women who aspire to improve women’s representation and strengthen their success and opportunities at X.Before joining X, Eugenie led Operations for Google in France and Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Francophone Africa). Before Google, Eugenie worked for Alcatel in Mexico City, managing projects to connect cities and public infrastructure online.In parallel with her work at X, she is a partner at 50PartnersImpact, an advisor to RingMission, and a board member at TradeCafe.Eugenie grew up in Paris, and has a degree in applied mathematics (MASS Dauphine), a Master in Business and Management (EM-Lyon) and graduated from Singularity University in 2010. She lives in San Francisco with her 2 Franco-English-American kids (Shan 9 years, Alma 7 years). Eugenie balances the fast pace of technology leadership by practicing meditation and yoga.

Hailey Eustace

Commplicated
Founder

Find out more

Hailey Eustace is the founder of Commplicated, a deeptech communications and branding firm that specialises in startups with complex technologies. Hailey has been working in deeptech for over 10 years, starting at the $485M Texas Emerging Technology Fund in Austin. She has vast experience leading communications for both large global brands and deeptech scaleups, has also advised hundreds of startups, and is a deeptech angel investor.

Riam Kanso

Conception X
CEO

Find out more

Dr Riam Kanso is the founder and CEO of Conception X; the UK’s leading venture programme for PhDs who want to build deep technology startups. Riam has a PhD in Neuroscience from Oxford University and has worked both in computational science and med tech; and has co-founded two startups before Conception X

Yann Gaston-Mathé

Iktos
CEO & Co-Founder

Find out more

Yann is a seasoned R&D professional, strategy consultant and biotech entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in pharma (Servier, Ipsen), molecular diagnostics (IntegraGen) and strategy consulting (Capgemini Consulting, BearingPoint, Cepton). He is also a skilled data scientist with several patents and publications in the field of biostatistics and biomarkers discovery and validation. Yann is Co-founder and CEO of Iktos, a leading chemical research Artificial Intelligence company focusing on medicinal chemistry and new drug design. Iktos is developing innovative AI technology based on deep generative models, which enables to design compounds that are optimized in silico to meet all the success criteria of a small molecule drug discovery project.

Alan Clayton

SOSV
Global Roaming Mentor

Find out more

Alan has invested the last 13 years, with 1000+ startups, building the human capital across the SOSV portfolio, from Shanghai to San Francisco. Entrepreneur and executive coach since before coaching was a thing; once saved a company $15m in 5 minutes ! Providing tools and frameworks to help founders become better leaders.

Joshua Ismin

Psylo.bio
CEO & Co-Founder

Find out more

Joshua Ismin is CEO/co-founder of Psylo.bio, a biotech company developing widely accessible, rapid-acting serotonergic agents without the side-effects and scalability challenges of psilocybin. Using our computationally-enhanced drug discovery platform we develop novel compounds with optimized pharmacological profiles into transformative treatments for patients in need. Josh is a repeat founder with extensive fundraising and operational experience across a number of tech start-ups.

Guillaume de la Brosse

European Commission
Head of Unit for Innovation and NewSpace at European Commission, Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space

Find out more

Guillaume de La Brosse is currently Head of Unit in charge of Innovation & New Space – Space-Defence in the European Commission (Direction-General for Defence Industry and Space). Previously, Guillaume was assistant to the Director-General. Guillaume joined the Commission in 2016, as member of the Commission’s think-tank and member of the UK Task Force, where he dealt with security, defence and space. Before joining the Commission, Guillaume worked in the European Defence Agency as assistant to the Executive Director (2011-2016) and as pol-mil adviser in the French Permanent representation to the EU (2006-2011).

Marianne Hyltoft

PSV DeepTech Fund
General Partner

Find out more

Marianne Hyltoft is a General Partner at PSV DeepTech Fund, a pre-seed deeptech venture fund. She applies rigorous science and engineering to transform emerging science and technologies within GreenTech, HealthTech, and Industry 5.0 – into global solutions for humanity and the planet. She is an “engineer at heart” who loves technology, sustainability, investments, creating big visions, as well as building teams and partnerships. Previously, she served as a managing consultant at Bain & PA Consulting, Director at The Social Capital Fund, partner in the Venture Building Studio KRING Innovation, angel investor in several startups, and CEO/founder of a startup. When she invests, it is advantageous that she has a combined technical and commercial background and understands the challenges of the startup journey herself – from an idea in a lab to product/market fit and scaling. She holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Danish Technical University (DTU) and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School (CBS).

Jan Henrik Leisse

eleQtron
Co-Founder & CEO

Find out more

eleQtron’s Managing Director Jan Leisse is a graduate engineer with an additional MBA. He has many years of experience in turnaround management and corporate development and was previously Managing Director at mechanical engineering specialist Albrecht Bäumer. With his process-oriented work, he is the driving force behind eleQtron’s rapid growth.

Florian Steger

Deutsche Telekom hubraum Fund
Managing Director

Find out more

As entrepreneur and investor, Florian has extensive hands-on experience in building and financing technology startups from scratch. In his current role as MD of Deutsche Telekom’s seed Fund, he is responsible for the venture investments of one of Europe’s preeminent corporate innovation hubs and leads an international team of investment professionals based in Berlin, Krakow and Tel Aviv.

Samira Nik

European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency
EIC Programme Manager for Quantum Tech and Electronics

Find out more

Samira holds an Advanced Materials engineering degree and a PhD in Materials Science from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, specializing in superconducting quantum devices and nanoelectronics. After a postdoctoral fellowship, she managed R&D projects in Sweden, focusing on innovative piezoelectric sensors and energy harvesting devices. Later, at IMEC, Belgium, she gained insights into cleanroom management. Transitioning to policy, Samira became Project Manager – Innovation at CEN-CENELEC, collaborating with EC JRC on “Putting Science into Standards” and spearheading efforts to make Quantum Technology ready for industry. She also facilitated connections between R&I communities and industry, led European funded projects, and contributed to R&I foresight.

Natalie Cernecka

EIT Manufacturing
Initiative Manager

Find out more

Natalie CERNECKA is Strategic Education Project Manager with EIT Manufacturing, and is the manager of the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative. She previously worked as Head of Business Development at a big data and AI platform TeraLab, where she oversaw the company European projects, and as Director of Partnerships at an edtech startup OpenClassrooms, where she launched online training in several deep tech fields. Natalie holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Before moving into tech, she held academic positions in the UK, France, and Japan, and worked in international relations in Latvia and the UK. Natalie is a coorganiser of Paris Women in Machine Learning and Data Science, which promotes women working in the field and counts over 5000 members.

Mark Boris Andrijanič

kumo.ai
Member of the EIT Governing Board and Vice President

Find out more

Mark Boris Andrijanič is a Member of the EIT Governing Board and the VP of Kumo.AI. He serves as a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, focusing on AI governance and transatlantic tech diplomacy. In 2021 and 2022, he served as Slovenia’s first-ever Minister of Digital Transformation. During Slovenia’s EU presidency, he led negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and other European tech regulations. President Zelenskyy awarded him the Peace Prize for supporting Ukraine’s digital resilience. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels, where he focused on the EU’s digital and economic policies. Mark is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and a former David D. Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission.

Michał Dżoga

Intel
Government Partnerships EMEA Director

Find out more

Graduate of Warsaw School of Economics. Former Advisor to President Poland (1999-2004) and Advisor to the CEO of Polish Telecom (2004-2008). Founder and former President of the Orange Foundation, one of Poland’s most recognized NGOs. A co-founder and Council Chairman of the Coalition for Polish Innovations, an organization fostering the creation of favorable conditions for innovation ecosystem development. Initiator and Council Chair of the “IT for She” consortium advocating for women’s increased ICT career uptake. At Intel for the last 14 years as a Director for Strategic Partnerships with governments and international organizations in the EMEA region, today in the role of Intel Country Manager in Poland, executing the company’s strategy in one of the most prominent countries for Intel in Europe.

Lena Weirauch

ai-omatic solutions GmbH
CEO & Founder

Find out more

Lena Weirauch, a psychology graduate, co-founded ai-omatic in 2020, delving into AI after discovering a passion for statistics during her studies and gaining industry experience as a project manager in aviation. At ai-omatic, Lena leads in sales and software development. The startup specializes in digital maintenance software, providing innovative solutions that blend statistical models and AI for predictive maintenance. Their goal is to transform Germany’s production landscape. Lena is not only dedicated to ai-omatic’s success but is also an advocate for women’s visibility in the startup scene, serving as the Hamburg state spokesperson for the Startup Association.

Estelle Godard

Promus Ventures
Investor

Find out more

Estelle is an investor on the Promus Ventures team, focused on early-stage deepetch investments. She previously worked for the European Space Agency, CNES, and the United Nations. Estelle holds a Dual Bachelor’s in Social and Political Sciences from Sciences Po Paris and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (UBC), and a Master’s in Economics and Public Policy from Science Po Paris.

Michiel Scheffer

European Commission
President of the Board of the European Innovation Council

Find out more

Michiel Scheffer is the President of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Board. A Dutch national, he has three decades of experience in business, academia, and public policy. He is equipped with a wide network in the world of research and innovation and has a remarkable professional experience of more than 20 years in the field of innovation, including on breakthrough technologies, disruptive innovations, start‐ups impact investment.

Ivo Dusek

MAGNETO B.V.
Managing Director

Find out more

Czech originally but nowadays managing director and co-founder of a Dutch start up Magneto. Gained professional and life experience by building products and discovering new business models in Europe, Africa and South East Asia.Natalia’s academic background includes a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Heidelberg, followed by a Ph.D. in Medical Neurosciences from the Charité University Hospital in Berlin.

Natalia Drost

Infinite Roots
Strategic Project Lead

Find out more

For the past three years, Natalia is the Strategic Project Lead at Infinite Roots, formerly known as Mushlabs, where she was advancing the company’s mission of sustainable, healthy, and nutritious food solutions. Prior to her role at Infinite Roots, she spent six years as a Consultant at Kearney, specializing in sustainability, circular economy, and operational strategies.

Francesco Matteucci

European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency
EIC Programme Manager for advanced materials for energy & environmental sustainability

Find out more

Francesco is an innovation manager with 20 years of experience spent as a researcher in materials science, as a Corporate R&D Manager within the field of technologies for renewable energy production and storage, and as an intermediary of knowledge trying to exploit the research results within the field of energy and environment. As R&D Corporate manager, he also cofounded and directed several start-ups and joint-labs managing public-private partnerships. As a facilitator of knowledge exploitation (IoK), he co-managed publicly funded projects, as well as Emilia Romagna Climate-KIC Innovation Centre, Dhitech Living Lab on Nanotechnologies, Emilia-Romagna Greentech Clust-ER. Francesco acted as scientific expert within the Vanguard Initiative ADMA Pilot, reviewer of research projects, co-authored over 30 scientific papers, 5 patents, and was Visiting Professor at the University of Ferrara as well as speakers in many conferences and workshops.

Benjamin Saada

Fairmat
Founder & CEO

Find out more

Benjamin Saada, Fairmat’s Founder & CEO, is an award-winning entrepreneur driving global carbon emissions reduction. With an engineering background and 15 patents, he launched Fairmat in 2020—a French deeptech firm focused on carbon fiber recycling, backed by a €43 million investment. Headquartered in France, Fairmat excels globally, offering advanced solutions for high-performance applications. Also serving as Non-Executive Chairman of Expliseat, a pioneer in ultra-light aircraft seats, Benjamin passionately champions environmental sustainability, leading Fairmat’s team in innovating green deeptech recycling and expanding the company’s global footprint in the US and beyond”

Sophie Purdom

Planeteer Capital
Managing Partner

Find out more

Sophie Purdom invests in and supports early-stage climate tech founders and their companies with Planeteer Capital. Planeteer leads investments globally at the Pre-Seed and Seed stage into hardware-enabled software for climate. Sophie has backed breakout companies like Remora, WeaveGrid, Amogy and Patch – often as the earliest, climate-first investor. Sophie also writes CTVC, a newsletter & strategic data platform with 70,000+ subscribers. Prior, Sophie launched an ESG fund, published a book on sustainable investing, worked at Bain & Co., and helped found and raise $65m at Kula Bio to develop carbon-negative fertilizer.

Jane Reddin

AlbionVC
Partner

Find out more

Jane Reddin is AlbionVC’s Partner for Talent and Platform, supports B2B software and healthtech founders in scaling human capital. Leading the AlbionVC platform team, she specializes in growth strategy, leadership team hiring, and organizational scaling. With 25 years of experience, she previously served as Talent Director at Balderton Capital and co-founded The Talent Stack, focusing on talent management for startups.

Aude Guo

Innovafeed
Co-founder

Find out more

Aude Guo co-founded Innovafeed in 2016 as a tool to tackle one of humanity’s biggest challenge: climate change. Aude’s career path starts at Safran before leading her to McKinsey & Company where she developed a particular interest towards the food and agritech sector and its inherent impact on the environment. Aude has a double degree, in engineering from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussée (France), and a MBA from Collège des Ingénieurs (France)

Yasmin Hassan

Infinite Orbits
Chief Financial Officer

Find out more

Yasmin Hassan is Chief Financial Officer at Infinite Orbits, a NewSpace company pushing the boundaries of in-orbit services. She has over 18 years of experience in finance and private equity.

Agate Freimane

Norrsken VC
General Partner

Find out more

Agate S. Freimane is a General Partner at Norrsken VC, Europe’s largest early stage impact venture capital fund. The fund is dedicated to investing in early-stage startups that leverage technology to address the world’s most pressing challenges while building highly profitable businesses. Portfolio highlights include Northvolt, Einride, Heart Aerospace and 1KOMMA5°.

Clea Kolster

Lowercarbon Capital
Partner and Head of Science

Find out more

Clea is an expert in carbon capture and sequestration, climate solutions, and energy policy. As Partner and Head of Science at Lowercarbon Capital, she leads the firm’s technical research, diligence, and scientific strategy efforts and supports portfolio companies in similar efforts. Clea’s distinguished career has been focused on solving the climate emergency through innovation in technology, business models, and policy. Prior to joining Lowercarbon, Clea worked in energy consulting at E3, designing decarbonization plans for state agencies and energy companies across North America. Clea also founded a company working on financing and distribution solutions for clean cooking fuel access in West Africa. Clea holds a PhD and MEng in chemical engineering and environmental policy from Imperial College London where she focused specifically on techno economic and process modeling of carbon capture and storage systems.

Caspar Schuchmann

Ineratec
CFO

Find out more

Prior to joining INERATEC as CFO in 2022, Caspar gained five years of experience in investment management with a focus on shipping and renewable energies. He raised over EUR 800m in equity and debt capital while contributing to the successful IPO of a shipping company.

Victoria Sassoon

Synonym Bio
Associate Director of Capital Markets

Find out more

Victoria is Associate Director of Capital Markets at Synonym Bio. Synonym develops infrastructure for the bioeconomy by collaborating with companies bringing next-generation bioproducts to market, helping them plan, expand and scale seamlessly. Victoria is an infrastructure investment professional with experience in advisory and direct investment. Victoria holds a B.S.E. in Civil Engineering from Princeton University.

John Paschkewitz

BCG X
Vice President

Find out more

Yair Reem is a Partner at Extantia Capital, a climate-first venture capital firm accelerating the path to a decarbonised world. Previously, Yair was Managing Director at Hasso Plattner Ventures and a cyber technology leader at Israeli Military Intelligence – Unit 8200.

Kulika Weizman

Creative Ventures
General Partner

Find out more

Kulika Weizman is a General Partner at Creative Ventures investing in early-stage deep tech companies solving humanity’s most critical crises: rising healthcare costs, climate change, and labor shortages. She leverages her scientific expertise and operational experience in her role at Creative. Kulika holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology (UC Berkeley) and B.S. in Economics (the Wharton School).

Hany Nada

ACME Capital
Co-Founder and Partner

Find out more

Hany is a Co-Founder and Partner at ACME Capital. Prior to founding ACME in 2018, he was a Co-Founder and Partner at GGV Capital. Hany has served as a long-term partner to more than 150 companies over the past two decades, advising them on global markets, business development, go-to-market strategy, and M&A/IPO guidance across US, European, and Asian markets. Hany currently serves on the board of directors of AviaGames, Forma.ai, Forte, Petra, Regology, and Uhnder.

Fatou Diagne

Bootstrap Europe
Co-founder and managing partner

Find out more

Fatou is the co-founder and managing partner for Bootstrap Europe, actively sourcing and evaluating growth companies eligible for debt financing.

Cyril Ebersweiler

SOSV/HAX
General Partner

Find out more

Cyril is a General Partner at SOSV and the Founder/MD of HAX, the leading hands-on venture capital for hard tech. With over two decades of experience in US and Asian markets, Cyril has invested in hundreds of deep tech companies (including Formlabs, AngelList, Opentrons and AdoreMe), generated $B in value and completed 26 M&As.

Andreas Riegler

APEX Ventures
General Partner

Find out more

Founder and General Partner of APEX Ventures, a leading European Deep Tech venture capital firm. Prior to founding APEX Ventures, Andreas was active as business angel and company builder. Before that he established global technology companies in the United States, the UK and Germany. In his current role, he supports portfolio companies at an early stage to help them find commercial traction and turn them into global organisations

Yoram Wijngaarde

Dealroom.co
Founder & CEO

Find out more

Founder of Dealroom, which was launched in 2014 in Amsterdam to provide insights and intelligence about the world’s most promising companies. Top tier venture capital firms like Sequoia, Insight Partners, Balderton, Atomico, and world class corporates like Google, Amazon, Stripe, McKinsey, BCG, EY, Deloitte, Unilever, Pepsi and others use Dealroom software and data to stay at the forefront of innovation and discover the world’s most promising companies. Before founding Dealroom, Yoram was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, Nomura Securities and NOAH Advisors in New York and London. Yoram has a cum laude Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Maria Jose Alvarez

WNT Ventures
Managing Partner

Find out more

Maria Jose is a Managing Partner at WNT Ventures, NZ’s longest-standing deep tech incubator and VC fund. MJ has over a decade of experience in venture building, investments, and funds management in Chile and New Zealand. Focused on Pre-Seed to Series A investments and raising its fourth fund, WNT has a track record of managing successful exits and catalyzing dep-tech innovations coming from New Zealand.

Steve Jacobs

Lakestar
Partner & CPO

Find out more

Steve brings over a decade of experience in product management, design, and development from Silicon Valley for companies such as Apple, HP, Facebook, and Google as well as having founded and exited his own start-up. Steve leads the Deep Tech investing team where they search for companies that will be global leaders built on fundamentally novel scientific or engineering breakthroughs. As Chief Product Officer he additionally supports the broader investment team on product related topics as well as offers value-add support to portfolio founders and CPOs.

Tyler Christie

Decarbonization Partners
Managing Director

Find out more

Tyler Christie is MD for Decarbonization Partners, a BlackRock and Temasek JV based with 20+ years experience in sustainability as a venture investor, entrepreneur, and growth executive. He started his career as a data scientist, received an MBA from The Wharton School, and now lives in London

Mark Reilly

IP Group
Managing Partner

Find out more

Mark is an impact-focused technology investor and business builder. He has overseen more than 200 private and public company venture transactions and has well over a decade of experience sitting on the boards of some of the UK’s most exciting Deeptech start-ups. He was a board member at Wave Optics when it was sold to Snap Inc for over $500m and led the first investments into companies like First Light Fusion, Ultraleap and Quantum Motion Technologies. Mark holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Pippy James

ARIA
Chief Product Officer

Find out more

Pippy is the Director of Product at the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). She oversees the design and development of ARIA’s operating and funding model – including the programme development process – and their entrepreneurial science initiatives. Previously, she co-founded Gleen, a women’s health start-up, and was Global Product Manager at Entrepreneur First.

Guilhem de Vregille

XAnge
Partner

Nick de la Forge

Planet A Ventures
Co-founder & General Partner

Find out more

Nick is a trained industrial engineer and entrepreneur who spent his career in deep-tech, particularly in the WEB3.0, focussing on the intersection of blockchain, artificial intelligence, IOT and commercialisation. Throughout different roles at leading firms in european deep-tech startups and funds, his own company Scalewonder as well as long-ranging track record as an angel investor, Nick accumulated the knowledge and skills to build Planet A . Nicks path towards Planet A started when he co-founded Scalewonder. During this time it became obvious to him that focussing on the planet is mission critical for human society while the global VC-world was simply not equipped to fund the most important innovation needed to build an economy operation within the planetary boundaries and decided to move forward accordingly. At Planet A, Nick is leading the fundraising endeavours as well as the responsible deal partner for Energy & Heat as well as Transport & Mobility. He is also the deep-tech technology expert on board.

Andrew J Scott

7 Percent Ventures
General Partner

Find out more

Andrew J Scott is a serial entrepreneur turned Founding Partner at 7percent Ventures, where his team have backed over 150 early stage startups. He is co-founder of The ICE Network non-profit founder community, established in 2008 and the DragonChasers GP/LP community, which runs the ALLOCATE.GP European VC pitch event series.

Lucy Wang

Divergent Capital
Co-Founder & General Partner

Find out more

Lucy Wang is an experienced early stage emerging technology investor and operator. She is a founding general partner at Divergent Capital, a first check investor backing startups commercializing deeply technical & scientific innovations and breaking the mold of traditional business models. Prior to founding her own firm, she led deep tech investing at funds such as 11.2 capital and Greycroft. Lucy has invested in companies such as Immuta, Covariant AI, Machina Labs, Remedy Robotics, Shellworks, and more. As an operator, Lucy most recently served as the COO and Head of Product at Rendered AI, a synthetic data platform, where she led product and customer engagements. Lucy was also a founding team member of Livepeer, a decentralized live video streaming infrastructure built on Ethereum, leading operations and strategy. Lucy is trained as a machine learning scientist with an MS degree from NYU and BA degree from Brown University.

Chris Smart

British Patient Capital
Senior Investment Manager

Find out more

Chris is part of the venture and growth funds team at British Patient Capital, the UK’s largest domestic investor in venture and growth capital, where he has worked since its launch in 2018. Chris has over 10 years’ experience across buyout, venture and growth fund strategies. At BPC, a key element of Chris’s focus is investing in deeptech opportunities, particularly those seeking to leverage the UK’s world class research base. Previously, Chris was in the Financial Risk team at BPC’s parent company, the British Business Bank, where he led on providing support to the Bank’s various equity programmes across both fund and direct investments. Before joining the BBB Chris started his career at the Royal Bank of Scotland working in both the corporate and investment banking divisions, spending the majority of his time in the Financial Sponsors team working with European mid-market private equity houses . He was educated at CASS Business School and has a degree in Investment and Financial Risk Management.

Maya Ghayad

Id4 Ventures
Partner

Find out more

Maya Ghayad is a Partner at Id4 Ventures, a Fund of Funds and Direct Investment firm in Europe, specializing in early-stage allocations for Family Offices & Private Investors. Maya’s role involves managing direct investments, finding new early stage opportunities, and driving the fund of funds strategy. Additionally, she provides strategic guidance to empower portfolio companies to secure their funding rounds. Maya is recognized through her angel investments and active involvement in the startup ecosystem

Benjamin Joffe

SOSV
Partner

Find out more

Partner at SOSV, Benjamin works with our startups on strategy, marketing, PR and fundraising. Moving from France to Asia in 2000, Benjamin is a reformed mechanical engineer who turned to strategy and worked in Japan, South Korea and China. Prior to SOSV, Benjamin was the founder of a strategy consultancy which researched Asia-based digital innovations, with clients such as Microsoft, Citi and Harvard Business School. He also founded Mobile Monday Beijing, a community of thousands of mobile industry professionals in China.

Kaustubh Wagle

BCG
Managing Director

Find out more

Kaustubh is a Managing Director & Partner at Boston Consulting Group in the Middle East. He leads BCG’s Tech Capital sector in the Middle East and is a core member of the Technology and Private Equity practice areas. In these roles, he advises Private Equity, Venture Capital and TMT clients on tech investments, including AI, Cybersecurity, e-Commerce, FinTech and other digital plays. Kaustubh is a seasoned strategist and investor with a focus on technology and innovation. With extensive experience in advising on venture capital funds, corporate investments, and strategic partnerships, Kaustubh has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of tech investments in the Middle East and beyond. Prior to joining BCG, Kaustubh was Head of Strategy in the internal consulting team at British Telecom (BT) in London. Kaustubh holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and London Business School and Degrees in Economics and Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin.

Andras Forgacs

Starlight Ventures
Senior Partner

Find out more

Andras is an entrepreneur and investor in deep tech and life sciences. He is Senior Partner at Starlight Ventures, a venture capital firm for founders addressing the world’s most pressing challenges and opportunities. Starlight partners early with unstoppable entrepreneurs leveraging breakthrough science and technology to pursue progress at scale. Andras is founder, director & former CEO of Modern Meadow, a protein application platform company developing novel materials and ingredients for a healthier planet. Named as a 2018 Tech Pioneer by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Modern Meadow’s Bio-Alloy biomaterials and collagen-inspired fermentation-derived proteins address high performance and sustainable applications in fashion, beauty and wellness markets. Andras is also co-founder and chair of Fork & Good, a 2023 WEF Tech Pioneer, innovating in cellular agriculture to produce delicious, nutritious and sustainable meat without animals. Previously, Andras co-founded Organovo which pioneered the use of 3D bio-printing to create human tissue for a range of biomedical applications. He managed Richmond Global, an international technology-focused venture fund and was a consultant with McKinsey. He is co-founder and former chair of the Resolution Project focused on global social entrepreneurship, a Kauffman Fellow (Class 14) and was recognized as 40 under 40 by Crain’s New York. Andras graduated with a bachelors from Harvard and an MBA from Wharton. And his greatest venture are his two daughters Alexa and Amelia.

Daphné Leprince-Ringuet

Sifted
French Tech Reporter

Find out more

Daphné Leprince-Ringuet is a reporter for Sifted based in Paris and covering French tech

Maya Noël

France Digitale
CEO

Find out more

Maya Noël is the Managing Director of France Digitale, the leading European startup and investor association with nearly 2000 members. The organization’s mission is to create European digital champions and to animate and federate the startup and innovation ecosystem in France and Europe. Maya Noël started her career in digital in 2012 and immediately focused her energy on finding the best talent for fast-growing startups. In 2015, she founded her startup YBorder, specialized in international recruitment.

Christophe Jurczak

Quantonation
Partner

Find out more

Christophe Jurczak, PhD, is managing partner at Quantonation, with his various degrees in Quantum Physics he has worked in energy, defense and in the emerging quantum industry. Additionally he is a board member at several startups and nonprofits.

Carmen Palacios-Berraquero

Nu Quantum
Founder and CEO

Find out more

Carmen Palacios-Berraquero is the founder and Chief Executive of Nu Quantum , a leading Quantum Computer Networking company based in Cambridge, UK. She is an award-winning quantum physicist and inventor, author of several high-impact research papers and a book based on her doctoral research. She has been the leader of several pro-equality and LGBTQIA+ visibility groups, initiatives and direct action in STEM and beyond and has been featured in WIRED, Forbes, BBC, and Sifted. She serves on the Technical Advisory Board of the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) Centre and is co-founder and director of UKQuantum, the UK’s quantum industry group.

Paula Naidhig Puzzi

Suzano Ventures
Corporate Venture Capital Senior Manager

Find out more

Senior Manager of corporate VC activities at Suzano Ventures. Responsible for global networking and establishing new venture partnerships to advance the bioeconomy. She leads Eucalyptus Biomass and Packaging investment verticals, overseeing the startup journey from inception to portfolio management, to generate shared value for both the startup and Suzano. She has 19 years of experience in marketing, product launches and R&D across B2B and B2C sectors, managing several innovation, marketing and sustainability projects. Paula holds a BSc in Industrial Chemistry from the University of São Paulo (USP) and two MBAs; one in Marketing (ESPM and one in Innovation Projects (USP).

Maxine Mackintosh

Land Life
Chief Growth Officer

Find out more

Axelle Ducos is the Chief Growth Officer of Land Life. In her capacity, she works with committed corporations, landowners, and investment partners to finance and develop large-scale, tech-enabled reforestation projects that mitigate climate change and revitalize ecosystems and biodiversity. She graduated from HEC Paris, and received an M. Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics

Nicolas Pade

European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC)
Executive director for the European research infrastructure

Find out more

Nicolas Pade holds a PhD in molecular and spatial ecology from the University of Aberdeen with a focus on marine predators. Nicolas became the executive officer for the french national research infrastructure EMBRC-France, before taking over as the executive director of EMBRC-ERIC to coordinate the European research infrastructure in 2019. Nicolas has a particular interest in the broad application of genomics tools in marine observation and understanding marine biodiversity.

Ralph de Wargny

Intel Liftoff
Director

Find out more

Ralph de Wargny leads the global Intel® Liftoff for AI Startups accelerator, a free program to help early-stage AI startups with technical expertise, access to cloud compute resources including CPUs, GPUs and Gaudi2 accelerators, plus go-to-market support. Before that, Ralph was leading the Intel Software business in the EMEA region, focusing on HPC and AI with startups and enterprises.

Ben Zevenbergen

Google
Ethics advisor

Find out more

Ben works at Google as an ethics advisor. He has worked as a tech law attorney, a policy advisor in the European Parliament on internet policy, did a PhD at Oxford and a postdoc at Princeton. His work has always focused on the intersection of society and technology design. Ben draws from various academic disciplines and professional practices to constructively work through and improve technology.

Niall Firth

MIT Technology Review
Executive editor, newsroom

Find out more

Niall Firth is executive editor, newsroom at MIT Technology Review, where he manages the reporting team and oversees the brand’s digital journalism and newsletters. His role is to help guide coverage across all its key focus areas, including AI, energy and biotechnology. Before joining MIT Rechnology Review, he was chief news editor at New Scientist. He is based in London.

Maxine Mackintosh

Genomics England
Programme Lead – Diverse Data

Find out more

Maxine leads an initiative that reduces health inequalities in genomic medicine by ensuring patients receive the same quality of personalised medicine, supported by the latest research on people like them. She also co-founded One HealthTech, a global, grassroots community supporting under-represented groups in health innovation.

Fayza Daboussi

Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB)
TWB Scientific Director

Find out more

Fayza Daboussi is the TWB Scientific Director since 2019. With 20+ years of experience in genetic engineering R&D to develop solutions in various fields from health to commodity chemicals, her expertise extends to human cells, as well as microorganisms (bacteria, yeasts, microalgae…). Fayza also supports the French initiative on reducing biotherapeutics costs through her position as the Executive Director of the Toulouse Industrial Biotechnology for Health (TIBH) integrator.

Sarah Jones

Zero Carbon Capital
Principal

Find out more

Sarah is a Principal at Zero Carbon Capital, investing in pre-seed/seed hard-science startups solving the biggest challenges of decarbonisation. ZCC is based in London and Berlin, investing across Europe. Sarah has a PhD in bioprocess engineering, previously worked in university tech transfer at Imperial and Oxford and led the climate program at the Creative Destruction Lab in the UK.

Jen Stebbing

Climate & Nature Communications
Climate & nature communications consultant

Find out more

Jen Stebbing is a strategic communications consultant who draws on a deep and varied experience helping organisations and leaders multiply their positive impact, engage stakeholders, and communicate clearly. Jen specialises in climate change and nature communications with experience across carbon markets, climate solutions, nature tech, natural capital investment, climate action organisations and nature advocacy groups.

Lynn Rothschild

NASA Ames Research Center
Senior Research Scientist

Find out more

Lynn Rothschild, a research scientist at NASA and Professor at Brown University, is a passionate astrobiologist focusing on the origin and evolution of life on Earth and elsewhere, while at the same time pioneering the use of synthetic biology to enable space exploration. She has been a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellow five times and was the faculty advisor of the Stanford-Brown iGEM team. Current projects range from biomining, developing an astropharmacy and mycotecture for Mars, among others.

Elodie Chabrol

Pint of Science festival (France & globally)
Freelancer & Director

Find out more

Elodie is a freelance science communication consultant and the director of the Pint of Science festival. Her academic background as a PhD holder and a former research associate gives her a strong first-hand understanding of how researchers can communicate science better. Her specialities are training scientists to communicate with the public, organising and moderating science events and podcasts.

Nataliya Kosmyna

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Media Lab
Research scientist

Find out more

Dr. Kosmyna is a research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Media Lab. She is passionate about an idea of creating a partnership between AI and human intelligence, fusion of a machine and a human brain. Most of her projects are focused around wearable BCIs to enhance, augment and support human performance, particularly attention and focus on healthcare and spacetech. Nataliya won multiple awards for her work, among which is L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science award she received in 2016. Nataliya was also named as one of 10 Top French Talent 2017 from MIT Innovators Under 35

Sarah Neville

Financial Times
Global Health Editor

Find out more

Sarah Neville is the FT’s global health editor. She covers the NHS, and healthcare developments around the world. In more than 22 years at the FT, she has held a variety of editing and reporting roles including weekend news editor, analysis editor, UK news editor, public policy editor and global pharmaceuticals editor. Immediately before joining the FT she spent a decade reporting on Westminster, latterly as political editor of the Yorkshire Post. In 1995 she was awarded the Laurence Stern Fellowship on the Washington Post.

Alison Holland

Medable
Executive General Manager, Digital & Decentralized Solutions

Find out more

Alison Holland works closely with customers to align DCT platform tech and methodologies to maximize ROI and outcomes of clinical research. With 20+ years of experience in leadership roles, including as Six Sigma Black Belt at Covance and LabCorp’s Business Head, she has been engaged in over 300 studies worldwide.

Austin Che

Ginkgo Bioworks
Co-Founder

Find out more

Ginkgo is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming and its biosecurity unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. Prior to co-founding Ginkgo, Austin received his Ph.D. from MIT and undergraduate degree from Stanford.

Matthieu Vermersch

Clay Capital
Co-Founder & Partner

Find out more

Matthieu Vermersch brings over 25 years of investment experience in multiple geographies and asset classes. He has pioneered investing in the agrifood tech market, co-founding Clay Capital (fka. Vis Vires New Protein) in 2014 in Singapore. The team have been active ecosystem builders, both in Asia and Europe, and invested in a concentrated portfolio of companies that span the food and agriculture value chain internationally. Clay Capital focuses exclusively on finding disruptive solutions to global food and feed system dysfunctions, employing a disciplined investment approach built on identifying existing global problems within the value-chain and providing real world solution. Matthieu is graduated from Sciences Po Paris and University of Paris Dauphine, and after 15 years in Asia, now calls London home.

Matthew Furber

Danone
Director. R&I Plant Based

Find out more

Matthew Furber focused the first 10 years of his career in elite sport, supporting numerous World Class athletes to achieve success. For the past 6 years he has worked at Danone Nutricia Research, firstly leading a center of excellence in developing new muscle targeted nutrition solutions for aging and disease specific populations. He’s also the Director of plant based network, driving advances in plant based science and product application for Specialized Nutrition populations and has built and is leading the sustainability program for R&I, driving the complexity of decarbonisation through ingredients.

Katia Merten-Lentz

Food Law Science & Partners
Founder & Partner

Find out more

Katia Merten-Lentz, partner resident and founder/manager of the law firm Food Law Science & Partners, has been for more than 25 years, a leading practitioner in European food and feed law. Her practice also extends to Biotechnologies, Environmental Law and Cosmetics Law. She is one of the few lawyers assisting clients from A to Z in the food and feed area obtaining European authorization for new additives, enzymes, novel foods and accompanying them with issues ranging from marketing to innovation.

Bálint Várkuti

CereGate GmbH
CEO

Find out more

Dr. Bálint Várkuti, a native of Hungary, is the founder and CEO of CereGate, a Munich-based deeptech BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) venture. After studying Psychology and earning a PhD in Neuroscience, Dr. Várkuti dedicated his career to advancing neuroscience, BCI, and stroke-rehabilitation technologies. Prior to founding CereGate, he worked in the medical device industry, leading teams that developed essential tools for neurosurgeons and neurologists.Founded in 2019, CereGate has made significant strides in the field of neural interfaces, focusing on the transmission of information into the human brain. The company’s groundbreaking technology has been tested with over 80 participants, showcasing its potential for various applications. Among its notable achievements, CereGate has developed a gait support signal that alleviates Freezing of Gait symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease, a balance stabilization system for patients with vestibular disorders, and a general communication system. CereGate continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with BCI technology, aiming to improve the lives of individuals facing neurological challenges and to revolutionize the way we interact with technology.

Céline Triquel

Spartners by Servier and BioLabs
Head of R&D Open Innovation

Find out more

Pharmacist by training, she has started her career in the field of clinical development in pharmaceutical industry dealing with patients’ medical data. She developed there her skills focused on innovation in all its forms that led her to an intrapreneurship project. She then naturally oriented her career in this direction leading a lab of innovation in Research and now heading Spartners by Servier and BioLabs, the incubator for biotech, Servier has open with BioLabs at Saclay.

Bénédicte Garbil

Carbios
Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability and member of the Executive Committee

Find out more

Bénédicte Garbil started as a public affairs advisor at the French Federation of Healthcare Industries before becoming Director of Public Affairs at a pharmaceutical laboratory. In 2013, she joined the public sector, first working at the General Directorate of Enterprises (DGE) as Head of the Health, Biotechnology, and Agri-food Industries Bureau, and then at the General Investment Commissioner’s Office (CGI) from 2014 to 2017 as Deputy Director of Health and Biotechnology. After her public service, she led Edwards Lifesciences in France for 4 years, then founded a consulting company accompanying biotechnology and healthcare companies in their development, from valuation to market access, including industrial development in France.

Alex Scott

C&EN magazine
Senior Editor

Find out more

Alex Scott is the Senior Editor and European correspondent for US science magazine C&EN writing and filming on topics that include microplastics, tyre recycling, textile recycling technology, PFAS pollution, battery materials, flow batteries, and the chemical industry’s low carbon transition. Prior to becoming a journalist over 20 years ago he was an environment advisor for the UN.

Marilene Pavan

Lanzatech
Innovation Manager

Find out more

Marilene Pavan works as Innovation Manager at LanzaTech Inc., a gas fermentation company focused on converting waste carbon oxides into biofuels and chemicals. Her expertise spans over 15 years in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and biomanufacturing and, in her current role, she focuses on technology monitoring, competitive analysis, community and team building, partnerships, and mentoring younger scientists.

Adam M. Adamek

EIT Food
Innovation Director

Find out more

Dr Adam M. Adamek, Innovation Director at EIT Food, combines over 20-year journey in science, business, and innovation in food, nutrition, and agrifoodtech. His professional roles balanced business growth with societal impact. An advocate for agrifoodtech innovation, creating impactful strategies to drive sustainable change in the food systems. Eager to connect with fellow innovators passionate about making a tangible difference and impact.

Amr Aswad

Zayt Bioscience
CEO

Find out more

Amr completed a PhD in evolutionary biology at the University of Oxford, where he was first inspired to leverage the untapped potential of nature. Using microbes to address the world’s most pressing challenges was the inspiration that lead to the founding of Zayt Bioscience. In just a few short months of R&D, Zayt has developed a revolutionary, patent-pending process to transform food waste into valuable raw materials such as their healthy, highly functional ‘Zayt butter’.

Julia Davourie

Convergent Ventures
Co-founder & General Partner

Find out more

Julia Davourie is a General Partner of Convergent Ventures, based in San Francisco. She co-leads the fund’s strategy in sustainability. She invests in and mentors teams commercializing breakthrough technologies to meet human needs while protecting the planet.

Bruno Paul-Dauphin

VINCI Construction
Director of Exegy – Sustainable Concrete Solutions

Find out more

After 15 years spent in France, UK and Texas in Oil and Gas sector, Bruno PAUL-DAUPHIN joined VINCI Construction in 2019 to define and lead the EXEGY strategy with aim to generalize low carbon concrete at VINCI Construction and reach 90% low carbon concrete at any construction sites worldwide by 2030.

Peter Börkey

OECD Environment Directorate
Circular Economy Lead

Find out more

Michael Finelli, Syensqo’s CTIO & Chief North America Officer, with 30+ years in the chemical industry, leads Syensqo’s growth platforms in Batteries, Green Hydrogen, Thermoplastic Composites, and Renewable Materials & Biotechnology. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Mike contributes to customer engagement, operational leadership, and sustainability, with board memberships at the American Chemistry Council and FOSSI Advisory Board.

Miranda Wang

Novoloop
Co-founder and CEO

Find out more

Miranda Wang is a venture-backed climate tech entrepreneur. She is the Co-founder and CEO of Novoloop, an emerging leader in plastic circularity, transforming post-consumer plastic waste into the world’s first chemically Lifecycled™ performance materials. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the venture-backed start-up has raised $26M to date and is building and scaling new technologies to reinvent the chemical value chain.

Hussein Dhanani

Climeworks
Global Head of Strategic Partnerships / Deputy CCO

Find out more

Hussein spearheads Strategic Partnerships at Climeworks, a pioneer in direct air capture technology. His focus lies in forging impactful partnerships that empower companies to advance their net-zero roadmaps and fight global warming. With over 15 years of senior leadership roles, notably at P&G, Hussein is a seasoned expert driving impactful change in the realm of climate innovation. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from EPFL and is an alumnus of Columbia University.

Craig Douglas

World Fund
Founding Partner

Find out more

Craig Douglas has been investing in climate tech companies over the past 10 years at one of Europe’s longest-running climate funds, SET Ventures, where he specialized in energy, the built environment and transportation. Craig has pioneered ESG and Impact in the venture community after creating a leading ESG framework in 2012, as well as co-designing a model which links impact to fund performance and compensation in 2018, which is now used by over 30 funds. Craig is also an advisor to the EU Commission on Energy.

Julia Reinaud

Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Senior Director, Europe

Find out more

Julia has been working in the field of climate and energy for the past two decades, focused on decarbonizing the energy and industry sectors. Julia joined Breakthrough Energy in 2018. She has been shaping and implementing the organization’s activities and partnerships in Europe. As part of that effort, Julia worked with the European Commission and the European Investment Bank to set up Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe, a €100 million fund dedicated to investing in Europe’s best clean energy entrepreneurs, as well as the $1bn EU-Catalyst partnership that is investing in key emerging climate technology projects.

Michael Finelli

Syensqo
Chief Technology Innovation Officer

Find out more

Michael Finelli, Syensqo’s CTIO & Chief North America Officer, with 30+ years in the chemical industry, leads Syensqo’s growth platforms in Batteries, Green Hydrogen, Thermoplastic Composites, and Renewable Materials & Biotechnology. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Mike contributes to customer engagement, operational leadership, and sustainability, with board memberships at the American Chemistry Council and FOSSI Advisory Board.

Lilian Schwich

Cylib
Co-founder and CEO

Find out more

Dr. Ing. Lilian Schwich is co-founder and CEO of the start-up cylib, which offers a holistic lithium-ion battery recycling solution. cylib’s deep tech technology and proprietary end-to- end recycling process offers an efficient, resource- and climate friendly recovery of all relevant battery raw materials such as lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt or manganese, from entire battery packs or production scraps. Dr. Ing. Lilian Schwich led the battery recycling team at the Institute for Metallurgical Process Technology and Metal Recycling at RWTH Aachen University, where she developed the proprietary process in collaboration with cylib’s co-founder and CTO, Paul Sabarny. Alongside the third co-founder and COO, Dr. Ing. Gideon Schwich, cylib has constructed an end-to-end battery recycling facility in under 10 months with a capacity of one battery pack per day since September 2023 and built up a team of 44 professionals. Dr. Ing. Lilian Schwich recently won the renown North Rhine Westphalia Innovation Prize 2023 for her technological advancements, which cylib is now scaling to serve the global battery recycling market.

Lina Bertling Tjernberg

KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Professor

Find out more

Lina directs the Energy Platform at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, which coordinates new research initiatives within energy areas. She is an expert adviser in government and industry for sustainable energy solutions and her research aims to modernise the electric power system, also referred to as the Smart Grid.

Christine Gould

Thought For Food
Founder & CEO

Find out more

Christine is a global leader in agri-food-tech innovation, an energizing community-builder & an activator of breakthrough ideas that create lasting change in food and agriculture. As the Founder & CEO of Thought For Food, she galvanized a community of 30,000+ entrepreneurs in 180+ countries who are dedicated to transforming food systems. The programs she has developed have generated 8000+ business ideas and launched 70+ startups.

Benjamin Tincq

Marble
Co-founder & CEO

Find out more

Benjamin Tincq is co-founder of Good Tech Lab, an agency that supports technological and systemic responses to global challenges – restoring climate and ecosystems while delivering progress for all. He is co-author of the report “On the Frontiers of Impact Tech” which analyses 180 areas of technological innovation contributing to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals

Benjamin is an engineer by training, and was previously co-founder of a think-tank dedicated to digital social innovation (Ouishare), as well as a consultant in digital strategy and green tech. He has worked with companies such as Vinci, Michelin, MAIF, Autodesk, Castorama, ADEME and the City of Paris.

Lana Graf

International Finance Corporation
VC, Deep Tech

Find out more

Lana Graf is an impact investor and principal industry specialist at Disruptive Technologies and Funds dpt. at IFC, a private sector arm of the World Bank Group, where she leads deals in Ai/ML and Deep tech. Lana’s goal at IFC is to help bringing advanced technologies to worldwide clients and emerging markets. World Bank group platform is a perfect fit to help with smart and supported adoption of disruptive technologies, through access to countries, sectors, partners and clients of IFC.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Lana spent over a decade as a corporate executive in the Ai/Robotics and Industrial automation sector.

Eric Trusiewicz

Stanford University
Fellow

Find out more

Eric Trusiewicz is a specialist on heavy industrial decarbonization, especially cement & concrete. He is active as a board member, advisor and operating executive working with venture-backed cleantech startups. Eric has worked on cement decarbonization as an entrepreneur in residence at the cleantech venture capital fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures, as a fellow at Stanford University, and prior to that has a decade of experience in the cement industry in a variety of executive roles across Europe and the United States. 

Lauri Menoud

At one ventures
Founding Partner

Find out more

Laurie is a founding Partner at At One Ventures, where she backs deep tech startups catalyzing planet-positive industries. She is a board member at Avalo, Ascend Elements, Helios, Noon Energy, Precision AI, Puna Bio, and Simplifyber. Laurie has over a decade of deep tech commercialization, company building, and venture capital experience. She spent several years in the chemical industry (Solvay, BASF) and built a dozen ventures out of US Defense research programs (SRI International). Biotechnologist by training, Laurie is an ecological transition advocate.

Hal Hodson

The Economist
Journalist

Find out more

Hal Hodson is The Economist’s special projects writer, based in London. He joined the paper in 2016 as science and technology correspondent, writing about face recognition, tigers and the brain. In 2018 he was named Britain’s best science writer. In 2019 he moved to Hong Kong to take up a new role as Asia technology correspondent. He returned to London during the pandemic to join the paper’s covid team, writing on the immune system, vaccine manufacturing and data science. His work currently focuses on technology trade and decarbonisation.

Seth Bannon

Fifty Years
Managing Partner

Find out more

Seth Bannon is a Founding Partner at Fifty Years. Seth has seeded a range of deep tech startups shaping the world for the better — companies like Upside Foods (culturing meat to eat), Solugen (engineering enzymes to make carbon negative chemicals), and Astranis (small satellites to cover the Earth in Internet).Passionate about helping more PhDs start startups, he and Fifty Years published the Spinout Playbook, a guide to spinning out of academia.

Guillaume Boissonnat

Pili
CSO

Find out more

Guillaume is the Chief Scientific & Industrial Officer of PILI, a french biotechnology and green chemistry company. PILI develops and produces sustainable high-performance dyes and pigments. PILI has scaled up to the ton-scale several biobased chemicals as well as associated down-stream and chemical processes.

Pae Wu

IndieBio, SOSV
General Partner and CTO

Find out more

Pae is a General Partner at SOSV and CTO at IndieBio, where she is responsible for portfolio management and technical oversight.

Prior to joining IndieBio, Pae served as the Scientific Director of Telefónica’s moonshot factory, Alpha (in Barcelona). She was Science Director at the US Office of Naval Research – Global (out of Singapore), and technical consultant at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Her whole career, Pae has been investing in high-risk solutions to intractable problems for national defense, humanity, and the planet. She is especially passionate about bridging engineered materials and systems to biology.

Olivier Tomat

Genopole
Executive Director for Entrepreneurship

Find out more

Olivier is Executive Director for Entrepreneurship at Genopole, where he backs biotech startups catalyzing bioeconomy industries. Olivier has over twenty years of startup generation, company development , and deeptech commercialisation. He has spent several years in setting up and managing various startup development programs in France and the UK and has been appointed as an innovation expert for the French Government in Northern California. Olivier is an an advocate of ecological transition being powered by biotechnology

Antoine Gourévitch

BCG
Managing Director & Senior Partner

Find out more

Antoine Gourévitch is a member of BCG X, Boston Consulting Group’s tech build and design unit, specifically leading global efforts in building new products, services, and businesses with deep tech. He also leads the firm’s work in data and digital platforms, as well as its research into emerging technologies.
Since joining BCG in 1995, Antoine has worked extensively with companies in the automotive and financial services industries on digital and information technology. Antoine has deep experience in strategy and innovation, having helped a number of automotive manufacturers and suppliers redefine their distribution and sales plans, improve commercial competitiveness, and launch digital strategies.

Jérôme Moreau

BCG
Partner & Director

Find out more

Jérôme leads our Deep Tech Advisory & Ecosystem offering, aiming for disruptive and sustainable business model innovation by bridging over corporates and the deep tech ecosystem. He has extensive experience on innovation processes, product R&D in high tech industries, agile transformation & program management. Jérôme received his Master in Business Studies from HEC Paris in 2002, and is also an exchange graduate from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. Formerly with Renault Nissan, he joined BCG in 2011 and brings 20+ years of experience. He is passionate about sustainable development, philosophy & the ethical use of breakthrough technologies.

Yair Reem

Extantia
Partner

Find out more

Yair Reem is a Partner at Extantia Capital, a climate-first venture capital firm accelerating the path to a decarbonised world. Extantia backs daring entrepreneurs whose breakthrough ventures can significantly reduce emissions and accelerate the transition to a decarbonised society. Previously, Yair was Managing Director at Hasso Plattner Ventures and a cyber technology leader at Israel’s Unit 8200. Yair holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Technion (Israel), Executive MPA from Hertie (Germany), and AMP from Wharton (USA)

Kinga Stanislawska

EIC fund
Founder of European Women in VC

Find out more

Kinga has 20 years of experience in investments and finance. She is founder of Experior VC, investing in companies across all verticals with a CEE nexus. She is founder of European Women in VC platform and IC member of the EIC Fund. Kinga was management board member of Polish VC Association for 5 years. She sits on the board of private and public companies. She is named one of the TOP 50 of Europe’s most influential women in the start-up and venture capital space by EU Startups and top 50 women in tech in Europe by Forbes.

Clara Chappaz

La French Tech
Director

Find out more

Prior to joining the French Tech Mission, Clara held various management positions in the startup ecosystem all around the world. From 2019 to 2021, she was the Chief Business Officer of Vestiaire Collective, the French unicorn peer-to-peer marketplace for premium and luxury pre-owned fashion.

Jean-Francois Bobier

The Boston Consulting Group
Partner & Director

Find out more

Jean-François Bobier is a core member of Boston Consulting Group’s Technology Advantage practice with a focus on technology-driven transformation at scale. Since joining BCG in 2004, Jean-François has partnered with clients across multiple industries on projects related to digital, software engineering, agile, and deep tech.Jean-François leads BCG’s R&D initiative on quantum computing and technology and digital organization. Prior to joining the firm, Jean-François worked as an IT architect for Fidelity Investments and IBM Business Consulting Services.

Renita Kalhorn

Deep Tech Leadership Coach + Forbes Contributor

Find out more

Renita Kalhorn is an executive coach, Forbes contributor and creator of The High-EQ Founder. She’s worked with 1,300+ clients in 40 countries and specializes in helping deep tech founders level up as leaders so they can execute on their vision.

Lisa Melton

Nature Biotechnology
Senior Editor

Find out more

Lisa Melton is Senior News Editor at Nature Biotechnology. Lisa has a PhD in Immunology and a Biochemistry degree from The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She moved to the UK to work as a postdoc at the National Institutes of Medical Research in London (now the Crick) and later switched to science journalism at the Novartis Foundation. She has written for the Economist, the New Scientist, Scientific American, the Observer and Times, and for the last 14 years, has been covering biotech news for Nature Biotechnology.

Eric Dusseux

Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Venture Partner

Find out more

Pathfinder in Europe, the US and Canada, Eric is supporting as Venture Partner Breakthrough Energy Ventures. In his previous entrepreneur roles, Eric was CEO of a Canadian medical device company, quoted in the US & producing robotic devices with AI solution and, beforehand, Eric was President Europe of a startup company, translating pioneering 3D bioprinting technology for innovative treatments for children patients with rare disorders. Former senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry, Principal with the Boston Consulting Group, Eric is a Medical Doctor -specialized in public health & epidemiology-, a Physical Chemist -specialized in air pollution & physics of the environment-, and a MBA.

Lise Rechsteiner

Vsquared Ventures
Partner

Find out more

Lise has been working in venture capital for the last six years. Most recently, she was Founding Partner of Propagator Ventures, an early-stage deep tech VC with investments in North America and Europe. Before that, she was Investment Director at Nordic Impact and Investment Manager at the German Corporate VC Bauer Venture Partners. She also worked operationally at the company-builder Rocket Internet, being MP in several Nordic markets. She has a Ph.D. in Management, Technology & Economics (MTEC) from ETH Zurich and is half-Norwegian, half-Swiss, however against all odds, terrible at skiing.

Florian Schabus

Planet A Ventures

Investor

Find out more

Florian is an investor at Planet A Ventures, a European Climate Tech fund, and previously worked in operational roles in different startups. Florian studied Operations Research and holds a Masters degree in Strategy and International management from the University of St. Gallen.

Christian zu Jeddeloh

Norrsken VC

Associate

Find out more

Christian is an investor at Norrsken VC, a Stockholm-based, early-stage impact fund. At Norrsken, he focuses on climate, hardware and tech bio investments. Prior to VC, Christian worked in a commercial role at the biotech platform start-up ATAI Life Sciences.